Pubdate: Mon, 12 Jan 2015
Source: Times-Tribune, The (Scranton PA)
Copyright: 2015 Townnews.com
Contact:  http://www.thetimes-tribune.com
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/4440
Author: Jeffrey Benzing, PUBLICSOURCE
Page: A1

LOSING THE WAR ON DRUGS

State Creates Office to Fight Problem, but Under Staffs, Underfunds It

If officials are aware of the statewide heroin crisis that has killed 
thousands of Pennsylvanians, they apparently think there's a cheap fix.

After six years of inaction, in 2010 the Pennsylvania General 
Assembly created the Department of Drug and Alcohol Programs, 
formerly a modest bureau tucked into the Department of Health.

Then they piled on a huge workload and gave it little money.

Overdoses have spiked in Pennsylvania, with heroin and other opiates 
killing more than 3,000 people since 2009, not counting deaths 
attributed to accidents, disease and suicide. Thousands more have had 
their lives torn apart, like Holly Wright, a mother of two from 
Kittanning, who went to treatment after losing her job, money and 
nearly her children.

Pennsylvania ranks third nationally in heroin addiction, with an 
estimated 40,000 users, according to the state attorney general's office.

It's unclear just how many heroin users are in Lackawanna County, but 
heroin arrests in Scranton have tripled in the past five years, from 
about 100 per year to nearly 300 in 2013, Scranton police Sgt. James 
Sheerin told The Times-Tribune.

Falling prices for baggies of heroin is also a good indication that 
the region's heroin habit is growing, local undercover narcotics 
detectives have said. In 2007, the local price for a typical bag was 
$20. Today, the same bag goes for between $10 and $15. The same bag 
in much larger cities can sell for as low as $2, detectives have said.

Meanwhile, treatment facilities run out of money, addicts are turned 
away from long-term care and billions of dollars are spent in the 
state to deal with the collateral costs of addiction, but not to treat it.

"Our people die. This is a progressive, always fatal illness if it 
goes unchecked," said Deb Beck, president of the Drug and Alcohol 
Service Providers Organization of Pennsylvania, an advocacy and 
education nonprofit.

The cost of creating the state's new department was $2.1 million 
annually, according to an estimate by the House Committee on 
Appropriations, which includes a staff increase of 22 positions.

But the state whiffed, failing to open the department until July 
2012, when lawmakers gave the fledgling department just $466,000 in 
state funds for general operations.

Did that money go to add nearly two dozen employees to elevate the 
bureau to a stand-alone department asked to turn the tide on a 
growing wave of deaths from heroin and opioid painkillers?

"Oh my goodness, no," Kim Bowman, the department's former deputy 
secretary, told Public Source.

Ms. Bowman's job was one of three created for the department. The 
other was the secretary job, given to Gary Tennis, and a position for 
his administrative secretary.

In other words, the department got less than a quarter of the yearly 
funding recommended in the fiscal analysis and barely any new staff 
to tackle a widely acknowledged drug problem.

"They're stretched very thin," said Ms. Bowman, who left to become 
director of human services in Chester County in 2013.

So thin, in fact, that the department lacks the manpower even to ask 
for more money from the federal government.

'Inadequate staffing'

The feds pay for the bulk of drug and alcohol programs, giving the 
Pennsylvania department roughly $70 million annually.

About $5.4 million of that goes to staff salaries, according to the 
2010 fiscal note. The Department of Health had 76 drug and alcohol 
employees, and those positions were brought over to the new 
department, using mostly federal money. Most of the remaining federal 
funds support drug treatment at the county level.

Due to "inadequate staffing resources," the department sought help 
from universities, another state agency and others to complete 
federal grant applications, according to the department's first annual report.

It received some grants, but lacked staff to apply for more, Ms. Bowman said.

Not only did the department get few new positions, it has numerous 
vacancies because of budget constraints, according to Mr. Tennis' 
testimony in the House last year.

Currently, the department has an official complement of 79 positions, 
but 15 of them were vacant as of Jan. 2, according to Carey Miller, 
the department's press secretary.

Supporters of the department laud its ability to tackle daunting work 
with few resources.

The department's mission is to reduce the economic impact of drug 
abuse and oversee the state's efforts to prevent and treat drug 
addiction - a monumental task given the increased number of 
Pennsylvanians turning to cheaper heroin after getting hooked on 
opioid painkillers.

Even with such a tight pocketbook, the department over two years has 
revised treatment licensing regulations for the first time in 
decades, convened an overdose response task force that traveled 
throughout the state, studied deaths tied to methadone, revamped its 
county monitoring system, hosted prescription collection events and 
lowered treatment barriers for inmates on release.

But licensing reform for treatment centers has moved slowly, Ms. 
Bowman said, because staff members were juggling other tasks. A 
crucial rewrite to criteria for placing drug users in treatment 
programs took about a year longer than it would have otherwise, she said.

What's the real cost?

Is $2.1 million the magic number - or could the department reach its 
goals with less?

Rep. Gene DiGirolamo, R-Bucks, was the driving force behind creating 
the department. He thought the estimate, which was attached as a 
fiscal note to his bill, was too high.

He recently told PublicSource that about a million dollars would have 
been reasonable.

Lisa Fleming, the budget analyst behind the $2.1 million annual 
figure, considers her estimate "middle of the road."

It accounts for salary and benefits for new staffers to handle 
leadership, policy, legal and administrative duties.

Ms. Bowman considers herself thrifty and said maybe a million less 
could have been reasonable.

But they didn't get that either.

In some ways, she said, not getting new staff led to unintended 
benefits in administration. Sharing things like human resources and 
computer staff with other departments let them capitalize on already 
established strengths.

However, the tight budget also hampered programs, she said.

The Governor's Budget Office put the department's estimated cost at 
$1.4 million, according to a Senate fiscal note from 2010. A 
representative from the budget office did not respond to a request for comment.

The actual reasonable cost of starting a department, Ms. Beck said, 
is likely between those estimates.

But what actually came down, she said, was "massively not enough."

What does the department do?

The fact that the department exists at all is considered a victory.

As a bureau, its staff was not on the same level as other departments 
impacted by the state's drug problem. Getting noticed was a challenge.

"Sometimes when you're down several levels, you can't even have the 
discussion," Ms. Bowman said. "You have to get on somebody's agenda."

Mr. Tennis was nominated as secretary in January 2012.

As a former prosecutor, he was previously the chief of the 
legislative unit of the Philadelphia District Attorney's office and 
represented the Pennsylvania District Attorney's Association before 
the general assembly.

With such a lean staff, the department relies on collaboration with 
agencies like the Department of Public Welfare and the Pennsylvania 
Commission on Crime and Delinquency.

One of the department's main roles is overseeing the roughly $41 
million the state allocates to support drug treatment programs at the 
county level.

In an ironic twist, the department's first lump of funding was 
actually allocated at the expense of those local programs.

In fiscal year 2011-12, the budget took $1 million from those funds 
to "transition" from the bureau to a full department.

About half of that was spent on salaries for the department's new 
leadership and operating costs, according to Wes Culp, deputy press 
secretary for the Department of Health.

"We were not big spenders," Ms. Bowman said, explaining that their 
conference table was refurbished from an old wood top that needed new legs.

The other half of the money went unspent and was thus lost to the general fund.

Calls to Gov. Tom Corbett's press secretary regarding the 
department's funding were not returned.

Minimal improvement

Pennsylvania is not flush with cash.

The state has a budget deficit of almost $2 billion, and a rush of 
money for drug and alcohol programs seems unlikely.

However, in budget terms, $2.1 million isn't a very large sum.

In fact, the state already spends about $5.3 billion annually to 
address the social and economic damage caused by drug addiction, 
according to the department. This includes money for prisons, health 
care, family assistance, education, public safety and workforce programs.

While the department still gets just over 0.1 percent of the state's 
budget for its total appropriation, including money for counties, its 
current funding showed slight improvement.

For the 2014-15 fiscal year, lawmakers appropriated $628,000 for the 
department's general operating funds. That's roughly a 33 percent 
jump from the $470,000 budgeted the previous year, but it's really 
still "very minimal," Deputy Secretary Cheryl Dondero told PublicSource.

In addition, the budget includes a new chunk of federal money for 
special projects, the result of the department aggressively seeking 
grant money. State money to support county treatment has remained static.

What will Wolf do?

Just how the budget will look in the coming fiscal year is an open question.

Governor-elect Tom Wolf has said he's serious about responding to the 
heroin problem. So far, he hasn't said how.

Press secretary Jeff Sheridan said Mr. Wolf will work with 
administration leaders, including the secretary of drug and alcohol 
programs and the secretary of health.

He would not say whether Mr. Tennis, Mr. Corbett's pick, will be kept 
on as secretary or offer any details on Mr. Wolf 's plans for the department.

"Governor-elect Wolf is concerned about the growing heroin epidemic 
in Pennsylvania," Mr. Sheridan said in an email.

Ms. Beck, whose organization represents treatment providers across 
the state, has been enthusiastic about Mr. Tennis and the work his 
staff has accomplished with few resources.

She hopes the whole team will stay put.

But she also hopes the new budget will show that the state is serious 
about actually paying for the department's work.

"It's perfectly clear they're not funded properly," Ms. Beck said.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom